THE SIDELINES : E. German Steroid Use Charged

Six-time Olympic swimming gold medalist Kristin Otto, long-jumper Heike Drechsler and several other top East German athletes have been named by Stern magazine as long-term users of performance-enhancing drugs.

Stern said in today’s edition that it had obtained a confidential East German document detailing systematic and comprehensive use of anabolic steroids by East German stars over the years.

Among the other stars named by Stern were Olympic shot-put champion Ulf Timmermann, Olympic discus champion Juergen Schult, Olympic decathlon champion Christian Schenck and world decathlon champion Torsten Voss.

Other swimmers accused by Stern were Heike Friedrich, Daniela Hunger and Dagmar Hase.

Voss, the only one of the accused athletes who could be reached for comment, dismissed the Stern report as a “flat-out lie.”

Drechsler told a German news agency today that she was hiring a lawyer and was considering legal action against Stern.